Guaízas: Face to face with the indigenous Caribbean

Last week I gave a lecture for a Master’s course on something that had been on the forefront of my mind for a long time, but for a long time really hasn’t: the subject matter of my 2005 Bachelor and 2007 Master’s thesis. Although I was a bit rusty I really enjoyed revisiting the artefact type that was my intellectual bread and butter for three years. That’s why I felt that I should give them a place of honour as this and the next few weeks “artefact of the week.” So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I present you the guaíza.

Cuban guaíza from the Gabinete de Arqueología, Havana

When Caribbean archaeologists are speaking about a guaíza (pronounce: wa-i-sa)  they are talking about a 3-12 cm large shell object that depicts a human face — sometimes with animal features —, crafted either from the lip of a Lobatus gigas shell or from a complete, conical shell like smaller Lobatus spp.. The faces that are displayed on these shell objects are all unique “individuals”, but they all belong to a range of one artefact-type. This is apparent from their shared features: deep-set eyes, prominent cheekbones and a big set of grinning teeth. Very often they have additional motifs that I interpret to be some kind of headband, sometimes sporting a big jewel as centrepiece, and earrings. For those who are more familiar with Pre-Columbian Caribbean iconography they look like a “normal” indigenous depiction of a face (in a Chicoid style), but for those who see them for the first time the faces often reminds them of miniature skulls (and you wouldn’t be far off, but you’ll have to wait a few weeks more for my explanation of your intuition).

Altos de Chavón, Dom. Rep.

As you might have understood from its exotic sound and form, the word guaíza cannot be found in any European language, but is of local, indigenous origin (probably from a language belonging to the Arawakan language family). Faithful readers of my blog might have suspected this already, but the indigenous people of the Caribbean left no written sources and as far as we know all speakers of the indigenous language(s) of the Greater Antilles have all been eradicated by the violence, disease and famine following the beginning of the contact period. Normally, a language that has no speakers and no written sources does not get preserved. How then, you might wonder, did archaeologists come to identify these shell faces with the local, indigenous term guaíza?

This is because these shell faces were among the first objects that Columbus brought back from the Caribbean after his first voyage. During his “homecoming” party he presented several of them to the Spanish queen and king, Isabela I and Ferdinand II. In his description of that ceremony at the court in Sevilla Bartolomé de las Casas (one of the main chroniclers of Columbus’s journeys) mentions that: Colón brought […] guaycas, which were masks/faces made out of fish bones in the manner of pearl and contained a great quantity of fine gold.” This rare direct translation of an indigenous word in a Spanish source lets us connect this term with an artefact that still can be recovered by archaeologists during excavations today.

Cuban guaíza

What also becomes apparent from the description by Las Casas is that — at least some of —these shell faces were covered with gold. In actuality this might have been true gold — caona in the indigenous tongue — or it might have been the guanín of which I spoke in last week’s post. Some have suggested that there were faces that consisted completely of gold/guanín, but these have not been preserved. Although they haven’t been preserved either it is more likely that most guaízas were made of shell or maybe even some other material like wood or cloth that was then inlayed with gold/guanín at central places such as the eyes and the mouth. The remains of resin used to glue the metal inlays into place in the picture of the Cuban guaíza above is evidence of this.

It is a popular misconception that archaeologists are all after the “gold X” (coin, amulet, idol, city, etc.). Although I do profess that a golden guaíza would be the find of my lifetime it is not the fact that some of them might have been covered in gold that made them worthy of my continued attention for a 3 year stretch. So, why are they such tantalizing artefacts? Find out next week…